29 Replies to “Spreading the Wealth”

  1. We are witnessing the death of capitalism and freedom. The cartoon only underscores the point.
    The very people who were responsible for the stock market collapse and subsequent economic and social collapse…… are expected to correct the problem…… Government – Democrat and the Republican’s who are going with the flow. How else do you explain “the most conservative Prime Minister in Canada’s history ” increasing spending 11.1% from June 2007 to June 2008.
    Sure, the Dems are gonna save us…… from capitalism, too bad it will be at the expense of freedom.
    Tony Blairs Britain coming to you in the USA.

  4. sarge here damn that looks like the big corporate bailout of course i guess some of us got treats some got tricked socialism for the richest of the rich except i guess they sort of held the gun to our head of suggestin our retirements was gone unless we payed up purty funny this here cartoon dad should have a sawed off shotgun doncha think?

  7. sarge here now miss liz sarge thinks the name liz sounds foriegn compared to some of them injun names like pochontas or pontiac or oglethorpe or stuyvesant for that matter but sarge dont expect ol miz lizzy knows of what sarge speaks while sarge is on the horn sarge likes this here dizzy better than mizz lizzy heh sarge made a funny!

  8. I wonder what Palin thinks of this cartoon.
    Her nephew has autism, her son has downs. Where do they fit in? This cartoon paints an absurd black or white picture – either you make the effort to go out and get treats, or you don’t. Extenuating circumstances that might prohibit you from going out are not considered. At the end of the day, regardless of the reason, be it downs or autism, or well, anything, if you didn’t go out, you don’t deserve a thing.
    For those who don’t see the connection, this analogy works across the board. Should we tax the parents of healthy children to provide resources for parents of sick children?
    There are, in fact, very few people out there in the world who are too lazy to work. Extenuating circumstances are worth more often than not.
    What if that cartoon had read “I’m going to have to take half and give it to the kids who are too busy studying/working to go trick or treating for themselves”? What would that make these children – who are seeking free treats from strangers instead of studying/working?
    When you try to use political cartoons in black and white, you inevitably end up highlighting the many shades of grey.

  10. and ‘all shall have prizes ” !!!
    you make a good point….perhaps the government should take over the distibution of candy on Hallowe’en…….that way nobody’s feelings would be hurt……just because the children that have the desire and the initiative to dress up and trudge the streets whatever the weather to have ‘fun’ and collect treats shouldn’t lead to certain other children being excluded from reaping exactly the same benefit….
    it just makes sense…i intend to have a word with libby davies and jack layton about this cultural affront to human dignity…

  11. I believe big’un’s missed the point. It seems to me that this cartoon’s exposing the scam of undeserved entitlement (not deserved assistance), which benefits the irresponsible among us, on the back of the industry of others, who are expected to forfeit the fruits of their labour to those who do not deserve it. It’s happening all the time these days.
    Here’s an example, written by the always spot on Theodore Dalrymple:
    Protect the Burglars of Bromsgrove!
    A British town puts thieves’ safety first.
    City Journal, 20 October 2008
    “In Britain, there is a long and honorable tradition of local councils’ leasing small plots of land, called allotments, to people without gardens of their own who may grow fruit, vegetables, and flowers upon them. The tenants also receive small sheds on their plots for storing tools, fertilizers, garden furniture, and so forth. Unfortunately, another, less honorable, tradition has recently developed: stealing from allotments. Seventeen of the 50 allotments in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire have been robbed recently, for example, and the shed of one tenant, Bill Malcolm, has been broken into three times.
    “So Malcolm put a barbed-wire fence around his patch of land to discourage further depredations. The fence, however, did not meet with the approval of the local council, which worried about the risk of injury—to future burglars. Injured burglars might then sue the council. Another council, in Bristol, told allotment holders not to lock their sheds, in case burglars damaged them while breaking into them.
    “Needless to say, I am replacing the glass in the windows of my house with tissue paper, so that burglars—poor lambs—will not cut themselves while breaking and entering.”
    Theodore Dalrymple, a physician, is a contributing editor of City Journal and the Dietrich Weismann Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
    P.S. If anyone here—well, anyone who’s not fallen for the candy floss vacuity of the social engineers—isn’t familiar with Theodore Dalrymple, you’re in for a treat. (And, if you have fallen for the scam, educate yourself.) In elegant prose, he’s been chronicling the breakdown of our once vibrant and mature Western civilization to what I think of as our present Society as Day Care Centre for Adult Toddlers.
    (The Globe and Mail once had an expose on the most dangerous people on the planet. Who are they? Toddlers! The fact that they’re too small to follow through on their unbridled appetites is what keeps us safe. The problem now, it seems to me, is we have a critical mass of emotional toddlers in adult bodies, who ARE able to realize their unbridled appetites. A sane society would refuse to go along. But, as we all know—well, those who have eyes to see—we’re no longer a sane society. Kyrie eleison.)

  12. lookout: “The problem now, it seems to me, is we have a critical mass of emotional toddlers in adult bodies, who ARE able to realize their unbridled appetites. A sane society would refuse to go along.”
    BINGO.
    Reading Dalrymple’s hilarious–if it was parody–article, I thought that this absolutely misplaced and absurd concern for the safety and well-being of burglars and future would-be burglars is exactly why society’s default position should always be high standards–as it was when I was growing up–while recognizing that some will have difficulty attaining this standard.
    What we have, instead, is standards of behaviour which are diminishing by the day, in order to accommodate every challenged person or group, whether the challenges are inborn or simply the result of laziness and lack of either discipline, willpower, or both.
    When societal standards are lowered to accommodate sloth and worse in order to avoid “hurt feelings” or “low self-esteem,” we find ourselves living in a virtual Bromsgrove.
    Adult toddlers, indeed.

  13. big’un: Mixing the sick and dissabled with lazy and criminal is like putting dog crap into icecream. One group genuinely needs our help … the other does not. Under North American welfare systems the latter dominates. Build it, and they will come … and come … and come.
    Palin would feel just fine about the cartoon … she’s not a self-loathing liberal.

  14. Posted by: lookout at October 26, 2008 9:26 AM
    Posted by: batb at October 26, 2008 9:39 AM
    Posted by: Paul at October 26, 2008 9:55 AM
    I would like to add that it is already infecting the work place. Seen this many times in the last 12 years and it is not getting any better. They have tripled the work site safety policies and people who don’t want to be there will find ways to get themselves hurt,

  15. bigun ,
    under further analysis of the cartoon, the children should have a choice of sharing the candy with the sick and disabled. you prefer to have the boogeyman take their candy that they have collected themselves and distribute it as he sees fit meanwhile offering them a mere sprinkling of the same.

  16. Off topic-what happened to all the “american economy is just fine” topic threads?
    Your all to stupid to see the truth on something so simple,so now i should accept your political thoughts as relevent?

  17. “It seems to me that this cartoon’s exposing the scam of undeserved entitlement (not deserved assistance)”
    Who decides what is deserved and what isn’t? Do you?
    “One group genuinely needs our help … the other does not”
    Same question as above. Who decides? What do you know about the myriad of afflictions that can affect an individual – medical or otherwise? I doubt you know it all.
    “the children should have a choice of sharing the candy with the sick and disabled”
    How many children share what they have? Do a little experiment with your own kids (or nephews, or cousins).
    Conservatives harp on about how they will share. Will they? Galbraith once said Modern Conservatism is all about finding a moral argument for greed. It may not apply to you – you may be very generous – but how many people are?

  18. If Leftists are so personally generous, why are their political parties lacking in grass roots funding?
    There is no prohibition to giving more than is required by the tax codes. Leftists can give more than taxes take, but do they?
    No.

  19. big’un’s exposed him/herself for the “let’s make excuses” useful idiot he or she really is. Letting people off the hook does not help them mature into successful, self-actualizing citizens. (Making thoughtful accommodations, which, explicitly, do not decrease the responsibility of the disadvantaged person, is another thing altogether.)
    Deciding who’s deserving and who’s not is the function of mature, caring individuals. Yes, unlike ditherers, apparently, like big’un, these decision makers will make a judgement call. Such people set high standards and respect the integrity of those they deal with when they actually expect them to live up to such ideals.
    E.g., I was in the classroom for nearly 40 years and had a great deal of success with my disadvantaged students. How? By setting high standards for them, helping them meet these standards (incrementally), and very definitely, often against the odds, holding them to account. Psst, big’un . . . Those who were used to having excuses made for them needed to be held to account even more, not less, a fact the powers that be ignore at everyone’s peril, especially that of the disadvantaged students they really don’t respect at all.
    Lowering reasonable expectations for civilized behaviour doubly victimizes disadvantaged students. (Would big’un, perchance, be one of the legion of appeasing school administrators out there?) Such students, who can smell inauthenticity—they’ve been altogether betrayed by it—at ten feet, recognized that their best interests were being served by my unwillingness to have the wool pulled over my eyes: “Mrs. ________ knows when we’re lying,” they said! Then they put their efforts into worthwhile endeavours, much to their own benefit.
    Those who are willing to be fooled into overlooking the shortcomings of the disadvantaged—“They can’t help behaving badly”—are part of the problem. Until the big’uns of this world are able to have the imagination to look at a disadvantaged person and see their worth and strive for its fulfilment, which often means some tough love, more and more will fall behind and not realize their potential.
    (big’un, I think you’re well meaning. But, if you really care about those who’ve been dealt a really difficult hand in life, your soft headedness is altogether misplaced.)

  20. Re being generous: I appreciate big’un’s acknowledgement.
    In fact, all the studies show that conservatives, who are often Christian, give far more in charitable donations of time, talent, and treasure than liberal secularists. And, Americans give VASTLY more than us “enlightened, generous” Canadians. (I believe that the American state, that gives the least of the 50, still gives substantially more than the most generous province. Now, that could be because of the tax extortion on this side of the border . . .)

  21. Please every one, don’t try to confuse poor big’un with facts his mind is already made up. After all big’un knows “socialist good, conservative bad”. Why he spent 16 years in grade 4 learning that so its got to be true.

  22. Someone missed out on the study showing conservatives give more to charity and donate blood more than liberals. Liberals donate more of other peoples money, sure. It always interests me when people make the charge that America is a horribly greedy place because of their government when Americans themselves give a higher percentage of their income to charity. Apparently many liberals see government as an organic extension of the people. I find this very weird and a little disturbing. I guess it explains why liberals hate Bush so much and call people with different political views “dividers”. They feel that government is or should be an organic extension of their values. Peopl with different values are corrupting the unity of the body politic in their view. There’s a video of Barack Obama at ABC.com speaking to a planned parenthood crowd last year where he explains why many Americans don’t share their values – saying that Americans are basically good and sound, but get confused sometimes because they listen to “the Wrong talk radio shows, watch the Wrong TV networks”.
    Obama goes on to reference “dividers” who are confusing the people for political power. He believes that there is an absolute moral truth inherent to people of sound nature. It appears that what he means by Unity is that the corrupted Dividers who are not “basically good” are excised from the body politic. This will heal the nation in a way similar to the removal of cancer or analogous to how some Christians believe that God punished America with 9/11 because their moral paradigm has not been absolutely expressed by the American government. I’m sure that this is why the Democrats are so eager to reinstate the Fairness doctrine. Obama has said he’s not big on that – but his solution is to reduce the radio station’s license period to 2 years and give the power over licensing to community groups – inevitably to left leaning activists. In other words, an even more powerful tool to control the speech of the Dividers.
    guess that went a little off topic…

  24. Relax we are just repeating history and are too stupid to see it.
    “The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these
    nations always progressed through the following sequence
    1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
    2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
    3. From courage to liberty;
    4. From liberty to abundance;
    5. From abundance to complacency;
    6. From complacency to apathy;
    7. From apathy to dependence;
    8. From dependence back into bondage ”
    Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota… believes the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency and apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some 40 percent of the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental dependency” phase.” (end quotation)
    No sence in fighting it. The smart among us will cozy up to the ones in power because they will be the only ones doing well in the end.

  25. heh, didn’t see your post until I finished and posted mine lookout – I write awfully slow sometimes.
    I saw a comparison of the American states ranking them according to taxation level and charitable giving. The correlation was striking – almost to a tee the highest taxed states gave the least percentage of their incomes in charity, the lowest taxed states gave the most. I think it is quite similar in Canada. There are two exceptions I know of – New Hampshire was the lowest taxed and least charitable state and Saskatchewan has been one of the highest taxed provinces but is also one of the highest in charity and volunteerism. (Second to Alberta, I believe) Mark Steyn believes he is living in the North American poles of New Hampshire and Quebec, but I consider Saskatchewan to be a third pole. (grew up in Rosetown btw, 40 minutes down the road from Kate’s good old Delisle)
    I think that secularized states and provinces end up substituting governmental spending for the charitable giving that is more prevalent among the guns and religion clingers. The question isn’t neccessarily which system is more or less greedy although I have my opinions on that. It may actually be neccessary for a New York to tax its people more in order to fund a social net because they are not going to give to charity. The thing is, government welfare systems will often eat up 50% of the money. Actually Harper once used 80% as a figure which suprises even me. The best system is going to be much more slanted to volunteering and charitable organizations which seem to be much less wasteful – usually the 80% is the minimum of donations which are applied directly to the recipients and it is often up to 100% which you will never see with a government program. Maybe that system is not possible in some places but for the provinces and states where it is it would be nice if the federal government didn’t eat away at it by promising that it can do everything. The problem with government charity is that it becomes government entitlement. It is this theme that lookout explains well – there is a reason that people talk about the tradgedy of American compassion. Ask yourself why black people in America were advancing faster before the Great Society or consider the sad example of a Canadian aborigional community that had so much suicide and depression that the government twice built a whole new community for them, eventually giving every family a home and a vehicle. And things got worse. (but the white folks running the government didn’t feel guilty anymore) Sometimes there is nothing more selfish than compassion.

  27. “If Leftists are so personally generous, why are their political parties lacking in grass roots funding?”
    hey, why does obama have so much more money than mccain?

  28. “Your all to stupid” says someone named ‘morningstar’.
    Sometimes satire just writes itself …

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